COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio's lottery director resigned Tuesday from a rocky tenure serving in Gov. Ted Strickland's cabinet, as the state tries to expand the lottery to include video slot machines at horse racing tracks.
Dolan did not say why he's leaving in his resignation letter to Strickland, other than to say that he had thought about the direction of the lottery, including the new policy for slot machines.
"My reflection has led me to conclude that the best interests of the Lottery and the state, as well as mypersonal interests, would be best served by passing the Lottery "baton" so that the next leg of the race can be completed freshly," Dolan said.
Dolan will continue to serve as lottery director until Strickland makes a new appointment.
Dolan's rocky tenure included being cited in an Ohio Inspector general report for sending free lottery tickets to a state trooper who had pulled him over for driving without a front license plate and found that he wasn't wearing seat belt. The trooper let him off with verbal warnings.
Dolan sent 100 instant tickets to the trooper. In response to the Inspector General report, Dolan said he regretted that his actions reflected poorly on the lottery but stopped short of saying he did anything wrong.
Dolan also appeared unprepared to answer questions during hearings held by Senate Republicans to evaluate Strickland's slots plan.
Additionally, there were questions about the truthfulness with which Dolan dealt with state lawmakers who were evaluating lottery contracts.
Some lawmakers on a state panel were disgruntled late last year after finding out that Dolan withheld from them information about whether the agency had chosen a new vendor to operate a new lottery game called Keno.
Dolan acknowledged during court testimony that he declined to share the information about the vendor with the lawmakers, some of whom viewed it as key to their decision about the future of the game.
"It's unfortunate, but I do believe that Director Dolan had lost the confidence, certainly of myself, but also a number of Republicans," said state Rep. Jay Hottinger, a Newark Republican who has heard Dolan testify as a member of the state Controlling Board.
"I know members of the General Assembly had questioned his ability to move forward as director of the agency, given the fact they are now expanding gambling and moving forward in a pretty significant way."
Strickland has said the slot machine lottery expansion will bring in an estimated $933 million for the state budget over the next two years. The state is attempting to quickly implement the expansion so that money can begin flowing into state coffers as soon as possible.
Strickland said in a statement that Dolan successfully oversaw the agency's transition to a new vendor that will save the state $20 million a year.
"Beyond his work at the Lottery, I believe that Mike is a person who exemplifies the creativity and commitment to Ohio that we expect of those in public service," Strickland said.
I was passed by a group of cars on I-75 and my speed drifted up. There was a cop following the crowd of speeders and he pulled me over. I didn't have my seat belt on because I weighed almost 400lb and it hurt me to wear it. He sneared at me for being fat, told me to lose weight and gave me $150 ticket. I think both the trooper who took the tickets and the director should be brought to justice. I have hepatitis which makes you gain weight but I lost 162 lb. I hope there is justice in the world but I don't see a lot of it in my corner.
Good luck to you Jeff..The cop should have kept his mouth shut and just wrote ot the ticket..Hope all is well...
Mr. Dolan lacks of integrity. No front license plate can be understandable because some car onwers don't want to screw their car's front bumper, especially on epensive collectible cars. However, wearing no seat belt violates traffic law, "Click it or Ticket". In addition giving the trooper for letting him go with a verbal warning can be considered as bribery.
Ohio residents should not trust this guy. If he does not hold interity for small things, how can he handle big things?
Hey it's Ohio do I need to say more
Switching from Gtech to Intralot was not a good decision for the director. The cost to Ohio to impliment these changes was astronomical in an already stressed out economy. The plus side to this change is improved terminal functionality and much faster ticket production, (for those who play their own numbers).
Well, one thing that can be said for Ohio, is at least we still have ball drawings...
It was my impression that the old contract had ended and the new contract was up for bids and Intralot won the bid. I understand Gtech had planned to make changes too if they won the bid so how did this stress the economy?
Well, I suppose one stress to the economy, (Ohio's), was having to spend all those millions on all the new terminals necessary to operate Intralot's lottery system. I don't think Ohio will have much luck in selling all the old terminals left over from Gtech's operation.
I didn't know the state owned those terminals, I thought they belonged to the vendor.
I don't know about other areas but in my area some of those terminals were due for a replacement. Several places were selling tickets that the terminals couldn't read because they weren't printing the bar codes clearly. The clerks would type in the tickets serial numbers that they could make out and hope it worked. I doubt if anyone will want those old terminals because they've seen their best days.